Public PhD dissertations October 2015
MSc. Ernest Mauya:
Time and place: 28 October 2015, 12:15. NMBU, Building Sørhellinga, room SU105
Title of lecture: “Using airborne laser scanning in the Tanzanian national forest inventory to estimate changes to biomass and carbon stocks over time for REDD+/MRV – Application and Challenges”
Title of thesis: “Methods for estimating volume, biomass and tree species diversity using field inventory and airborne laser scanning in the tropical forests of Tanzania”
MSc. Endre Hofstad Hansen:
Time and place: 30 October 2015, 12:15. NMBU, Building Sørhellinga, room SU105
Title of lecture: “Planning of remote sensing based forest inventory.”
Title of thesis: “Estimation of biomass in tropical rainforest using airborne laser scanning”
Background for the PhD dissertations
Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management at NMBU has recently completed larger research projects in Tanzania (the project “Enhancing the measuring, reporting and verification (MRV) of forests in Tanzania through the application of advanced remote sensing techniques” and several projects within the program “Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Mitigation (CCIAM)”).
The projects were led by the sister departments at Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania, and had several other Norwegian research institutes as partners. The objective of the first project was to demonstrate, develop and verify methods using advanced remote sensing techniques that could enable and improve future monitoring of forest carbon stocks for REDD+ purposes in Tanzania. In addition to the development of field-based biomass estimation methods and models, the projects within the CCIAM program were – in a REDD+ context – dealing with policy and socio-economic issues as well as biodiversity and conservation aspects.
Technology transfer and education were important components and justifications for the projects. Two doctoral candidates have completed their studies at NMBU as part of this collaboration, and they will defend their PhD thesis on October 28 and 30, respectively – the days immediately before and after this workshop. The four external opponents of the two dissertations are all well renowned international experts within their respective field of expertise, and their presence in Norway is a good reason to bring together a larger group of people for discussions on various pressing technical elements of REDD+ – especially in the MRV field.